Optics for AI Compute Era: Opportunities and Potential Disruptions

Key Enabling Photonic Technologies for Web3.0/Metaverse

PSC Annual Conference and Workshop

Photonics Society Of Chinese Heritage (PSC)

中華光電學會

Workshop description

Generative AI is gaining market momentum while AI compute is driving much accelerated high bandwidth optical connectivity upgrades. On one hand, conventional pluggable optics suppliers are gaining huge boost from recent AI compute data center build-out by hyper data center operators, on the other hand, the accelerated AI compute is also driving potential disruption with architectures requiring high bandwidth density optical solutions integration deeper into compute and memory nodes with new technology like co-packaged optics. In this workshop we will have invited speakers to discuss their view of AI driven opportunities and potential disruptions to optical industry, with representatives from AI data center operators, incumbent major optical suppliers, and new start-up companies focusing on disruptive solutions for AI.

PSC Opening remarks (8 min)

Partner remarks (4 min)

PSC Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship Announcement (10 min)

Panel Presentation (68 min)

Dr. Chongjin Xie, Alibaba
Dr. Benjamin Lee, Nvidia
Dr. Wupen Yuen, Lumentum
Maurice (Mo) Steinman, Lightelligence
Dr. Mark Wade, Ayar Labs
Dr. Karen Liu, Nubis

Panel Discussion (30 min)

Panel Speakers

Dr. Chongjin Xie

"Networks and Optics for AI Computing"

Sr. Dir and Chief communication scientist, Alibaba

Chongjin Xie is a senior director at Alibaba Cloud. Prior to Alibaba, he was a DMTS at Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent. He did postdoc at Chalmers University of Technology, received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from BUPT. Chongjin Xie has published one book, 5 book chapters and 250+ papers, and was OFC program chair and general chair. He is a Fellow of both IEEE and Optica.

Dr. Benjamin Lee

"Challenges and Opportunities for Optics in Future Accelerated Computing Systems"

Sr. Research Scientist, Nvidia

Benjamin Lee is a Senior Research Scientist in NVIDIA’s Circuits Research Group. Previously, he worked at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2009 in electrical engineering. He has published more than 150 papers and holds 20 patents in optical packaging, interconnects, switches, and networks.

Dr. Wupen Yuen

"Leading the Photonics Frontier: Accelerating AI Data Centers with Next-Generation Optical Connectivity"

President, Cloud and Networking, Lumentum

Wupen Yuen, with over 25 years in photonics, joined Lumentum in 2022 and serves as President of the Cloud and Networking Platform. He previously held roles at NeoPhotonics and Bandwidth9. He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Maurice (Mo) Steinman

"Breaking the Memory Wall with Photonics Technology Solutions"

SVP & GM US, Lightelligence

Maurice (Mo) Steinman is Senior VP and General Manager, US at Lightelligence. He has enjoyed a career in technology for 35 years at various postions at Digital, Compaq, HP, Intel, and AMD before joining Lightelligence in 2018. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a BS in Computer and Systems Engineering and holds over 50 US patents.

Lakshmikant (LK) Bhupathi

"AI Infrastructure Needs Optical I/O"

Vice President of Products, Strategy and Ecosystem, Ayar Labs

LK is the VP of Products and Strategy at Ayar Labs. He was with Marvell for twenty years in a variety of roles, including as VP, Products at Aquantia (acquired by Marvell). He also led CXL and Ethernet NIC product strategy for Marvell’s next-generation datacenter applications. He holds an MBA from UC-Berkeley and a BSEE from IIT-Madras.

Dr. Karen Liu

"Optical Communications 5.0"

Product Manager, Nubis

Karen Liu is Product Manager at Nubis Communications, Inc. Her previous roles spans from researcher at IBM, principal Analyst at Ovum/Informa/RHK to VP of Sales and Marketing at Kaiam Corp. She received a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University in the field of fiber optics, and a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University.

Photonics Society of Chinese Heritage (PSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promote friendships and collaborations among Chinese American engineers and scientists in the field of photonics so that they can enhance their professional and business contributions for better quality of life in this fast changing world.